


Music and Friends

by notenoughtogivebread



Category: Glee
Genre: Gen, Season/Series 05, Songwriting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-22
Updated: 2014-12-22
Packaged: 2018-04-12 04:42:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 638
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4465847
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/notenoughtogivebread/pseuds/notenoughtogivebread
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Brad didn't like the Glee kids much, but he had to admit they had talent. A little moment inside Brad's head in year 5.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Music and Friends

Brad knew what he usually thought of these kids—it was a revolving door of relationship drama, diva behavior, and inconsideration. They seemed to think he was a walking encyclopedia of music—or a jukebox! And most of them wouldn’t know instrumental music if it hit them in the face. Well, the kid in the chair—Wheels— and the other, what was that Sue called him? Tiny Burt Reynolds or something like that? They had music in their hands. The small gel-head especially. Brad this year had often found him sitting at the piano early in the morning, picking out a tune, sometimes crying. The crying he could do without. No one needed that much drama first thing in the morning.

But, you know, he could do with an extra cup of coffee some days anyway. He didn’t exactly want to encourage the venting, or whatever it was, but sometimes he hurried to the teacher’s lounge and back, taking the coffee into the office to sit and listen, watching as the boy played with melody, adapting this pop slop they all liked. And eventually, the crying stopped. When the early-morning piano sessions seemed to be stopping as well, he was a little surprised to learn that he missed them.

But when he came in one Tuesday in April to see that the boy had a girl with him—this year’s long-haired brunette with the radio-ready voice, that was different. THIS he had to put a stop to—they were taking over his piano.

He stepped in to reprimand them when the boy—Blaine, that was his name—looked up bright-eyed. “Just the man we were hoping to see!”

That brought Brad to a halt. He raised his eyebrows at the pair.

“Marley has written a song, and it’s really good. We’d like to get together and learn it, so we can present it to the club. But—“

“It needs some work,” the girl spoke up hesitantly. “Like, musically. Would you mind looking at it?”

Brad dropped his briefcase and narrowed his eyes at the kids, but reached his hand out for the sheet music all the same. What the hell was this, the Glee kids asking for permission?

The boy gave up his seat at the piano bench to Brad, but then was eagerly dancing around behind him, reaching over his shoulder excitedly, pointing—“See, I think the bridge could be stronger”—before he drew himself up. “I’ll, I’ll let you look at it.”

The next week, a group of the kids met him on the stage. He had sort of figured that they were trying to do this under Will Schuster’s radar—and that was okay with Brad. And he had to admit that the girl had something with this song. He could see the Glee kids putting a competition spin on it. When he was playing with the song all week, fixing that bridge, he had found himself comparing it to the original songs last year’s glee club had written. Those—they were defiant shouts into the void, the posturing of arrogant kids…or, well, maybe just some whistling past graveyards. This one had more of a family feel; it was turned inward.

He looked at the motley crew assembled around his piano: the small girl and the small boy, flanked by two larger kids, the empty-headed blonde boy and the transgender transfer from Carmel—the girl with the big voice. She was dressed down today, looking like the boy Wade. These kids’ lives were way too complicated, that’s for sure.

But their voices blended so well, making a gorgeous thing. Brad may not much like the Glee kids, but he loved good music, and these kids, well, they were intimately acquainted with that particular lover. Maybe this job wasn’t completely a waste of his time.

**Author's Note:**

> This is the first of a group of moments with with minor characters on Glee.


End file.
